Green River LibGuides: HUMAN 133 People, Language and Culture: MLA Citation Style (8th Ed.)

MLA Citation Style

MLA (Modern Language Association) Style is used in Literature, Arts, and Humanities disciplines. Always consult your assignment or ask your instructor for the correct citation style to use

Basic Formula For MLA Works Cited Citations (with example)

Basic Formula For MLA Works Cited Citations (with example)

Include as much of the following as possible:
Author. *Title of Source*. *Title of Container*, Contributors, Version, Number, Publisher, Publication Date, Location. Date Accessed.
Part of the Formula	Examples and Explanation	Example of article citation from a database
Author.	• one author: Last Name, rest of name as presented in the source. (example: Williams, Fred Laurence.) • two authors: reverse name of first author followed by a comma, then second author’s first name and then last name. (example: Cordell, Barbara, and Jane Buckle.) • more than two authors: reverse the name of the first author, follow with a comma and et al. (example: Browne, Charlene, et al.)	Cordell, Barbara, and Jane Buckle.
Title of Source.	• Put name of source in italics. • HOWEVER, if citing an article or only part of the source, instead put that title in quotation marks with no italics: “Article Name.”	"The Effects of Aromatherapy on Nicotine Craving on a U.S. Campus: A Small Comparison Study."
Title of Container,	• When the source is part of a larger whole, the larger whole can be thought of as a container (example: a whole book is a container for a book chapter) • Put the title of the container in italics (if you have cited an article or part of the whole source container)	Journal of Alternative & Complementary Medicine,
Contributors,	Example: edited by,
Version,	Example: 7th ed.,
Number,	Any numbered sequence. Example: vol. 3, no. 7	vol. 19, no. 8,
Publisher,	(however, no publisher is required for articles)
Publication date,	date as given on source but following this date style: 28 Jan. 2020,	1 Aug. 2013,
Location.	• Example of website: www.cnn.com do not include http:// in the URL • Example of chapter pages in a hardcopy book: pp. 250-259. • Example of article from database: pp. 195-212. ProQuest Research Library, https://doi.org/10.3149/jmh.1203.195. **if no “DOI,” include stable URL or “permalink” without the http://	pp. 709-13. ProQuest Research Library, https://doi:10.1089/acm.2012.0537.

Note: Adding the date that you accessed a digital source is optional. If you choose to add it, after the Location element, use this formula: Accessed dd Abreviated Month yyyy.

Example: Accessed 15 Sept. 2025.